Wide World of SportsCatch up with Ken Sutcliffe and the team on Wide World of Sports.AFL Footy ShowAustralia's favourite team takes you through the week in AFL.NRL Footy ShowFatty and the gang bring you an entertaining look at rugby league.Footy ClassifiedOur award winning panel tell it how it really is in the AFL world.

Owen Farrell has been backed to put his hand up for selection in the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia when he goes head-to-head with Ireland's Jonathan Sexton in Dublin on Sunday.

Sexton is seen by many as the favourite to be the Lions' Test five-eighth against Australia this summer, but England's skills coach Mike Catt believes Farrell is hot on the Irishman's heels.

Catt has worked hard with Farrell and rates him as a player of rare talent and temperament, qualities he has only previously seen in Jonny Wilkinson.

"I guess a lot of people are going to look at it as a head-to-head thing from a Lions point of view," Catt said.

"Both played exceptionally well last weekend and it is another game for both to put their hands up and say: 'right, take me on the Lions tour'.

"Owen's mental toughness is exceptional. I haven't (come across many players like that). Wilko was one of them.

"He is such a focused individual, he is so good at blocking out all the hype and everything that goes with it. He won't worry if it is Dan Carter, Sexton or Ronan O'Gara opposite him.

"What we want from our 10s is that ability to play flat or sit back in the pocket and kick. It's about getting that balance right at Test level, that's where Sexton is so very, very good.

"Now, it's about making sure these young (England) guys see it too. We're focusing on the detail of how to break down defences and that is helping him.

"Owen's enjoying himself at the moment, he's buzzing like everyone else."

Farrell kicked 18 points in England's opening Six Nations win against Scotland on Saturday, but it was his enhanced attacking play which really caught the eye.

Typecast by critics as a steady, kicking fly-half - a product of his Saracens upbringing - Farrell played flat to the line and showed a variety in attack previously unseen in England colours.

Farrell's man-of-the-match performance was helped by the presence of Billy Twelvetrees on his outside and was synonymous with England's shift in style.

Ireland are not short of game-changing match-winners either.

Veteran centre Brian O'Driscoll was in imperious form in Saturday's victory over Wales and England are aware of Sexton's qualities.

"O'Driscoll is playing exceptionally well at the moment. I thought that first half Ireland produced was exceptional," Catt said.

"We know they are capable of doing that. But we need to focus on our attacking game too, which went pretty well against the Scots, and try and starve them of the ball so they can't do what they are good at.